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Tag Archives: middle

This year’s Tribeca Film Festival will not only be remembered for its impressive array of films, but also for a number of controversial firsts. An airline commercial was pulled from showing, reporters were infuriated to find James Franco and Shai LaBeouf absent from a red carpet premiere, and the new Immersive Storyscapes feature allowed audiences to experience virtual reality in an all new way. As if all that wasn’t enough, the 2017 celebration wrapped with special showings and cast reunions for two of the biggest films in history: Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. Continue reading →

The Lord of the Rings has already spawned two epic film trilogies, the first in the form of Tolkien’s classic novels, and the second an extended adaptation of his first journey in Middle Earth, The Hobbit. That’s without mentioning all of the affiliated material that takes place within his mystical world, from the original novels to the chronology of The Silmarillion, to Tolkien’s own languages that he created for the many inhabitants of Middle Earth. As well known as The Lord of the Rings is to pretty much everyone these days, very few people can tell you anything about its author, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (J.R.R. Tolkien). That story, however, will soon come to light in the form of a new biopic surrounding Tolkien’s life, appropriately titled Middle Earth. Continue reading →

Writer, director, and star Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Iron Man 2) is finally seeing his highly-anticipated biographical drama Miles Ahead playing on theaters across the country this weekend. The film follows the career and come-back of twentieth century jazz icon Miles Davis, who, in the film, is approached by a journalist from Rolling Stone magazine looking to write a piece about his career and his influence on popular music. Cheadle co-wrote the project with screenwriters Steven Baigelman (Feeling Minnesota, Get On Up), and Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson (Ali, Pawn Sacrifice), and took on the lead role of Davis himself. Appearing in the supporting cast are actors Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, Big Fish), Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere, Addicted), Keith Stanfield (Selma, Straight Outta Compton), and Michael Stuhlbarg (Steve Jobs, Trumbo). The film also features a remastered soundtrack of some of Davis’ most memorable music. The trailer is available one more time here on MADE. Critics have thus far praised the film for Cheadle’s acting. They have not, however, been so kind in terms of his abilities as a director. Regardless, I would definitely recommend going to see this one if you get a chance; Cheadle rarely fails to appear in a worthy film, and Miles Davis was one of the most dynamic jazz-rock fusion artists in popular culture, so at least you’ll be able to hear some great music while you watch. Enjoy!

A new wartime comedy starring Tina Fey (30 Rock, Sisters) and Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street, Focus) titled Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is opening in theaters this Friday, March 4th. The film is an adaptation of author Kim Barker’s novel The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, about a journalist during her time reporting in the war-ridden Middle East. Screenwriter Robert Carlock (Friends, Saturday Night Live) adapted the book for directing partners Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I Love You Phillip Morris, Crazy Stupid Love). Co-starring in the film are actors Martin Freeman (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Hot Fuzz), Alfred Molina (Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc, Spider-Man 2), Christopher Abbott (Martha Marcy May Marlene, A Most Violent Year), and Billy Bob Thornton (Monster’s Ball, Armageddon). This one first seemed like a pretty strange comedy for Tina Fey to take on, but judging from the latest trailer, it does look like a pretty promising piece of screenwriting, so I guess we’ll just have to see this weekend. The trailer is available here on MADE. Enjoy!

Acclaimed director Ava Duvernay (The Middle of Nowhere, Selma) has just been hired by Disney Motion Pictures to helm a new adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s 1963 Newbery Medal-winning novel, A Wrinkle In Time. The book will be adapted by Oscar-winning screenwriter Jennifer Lee (Frozen, Zootopia). Chances are you read this one in elementary school, about a young girl who travels to a 5th dimension in order to find her scientist father, who disappeared while working on a mysterious government project called a tesseract. The film is still very early in production, and DuVernay also has another script on her plate from DreamWorks and screenwriters Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly (Safety Not Guaranteed, Jurassic World) titled Intelligent Life. This one is about a UN worker in a department dedicated to representing humanity in the event of contact with alien life, who falls for a woman who turns out to be a real alien. No word yet as to which film will end up being made first, but both definitely sound pretty interesting, although A Wrinkle In Time is definitely long overdue for a quality film adaptation. Either way, we’ll let you know about upcoming schedule announcements.

We’ve been waiting for some more news on this project for several months now, but writer/director Don Cheadle (Crash, Hotel Rwanda) has been hard at work over the winter months wrapping up production on his new Miles Davis biopic titled Miles Ahead. Co-written with Cheadle by screenwriters Steven Baigelman (Feeling Minnesota, Get On Up), and Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson (Ali, Pawn Sacrifice), the film follows the life and music of Miles Davis, who is in the midst of his comeback era when a journalist from Rolling Stone magazine shows up to write his story and his affect on the music industry. Starring Cheadle in the title role, the film also features Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, Big Fish), Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere, Addicted), Keith Stanfield (Selma, Straight Outta Compton), and Michael Stuhlbarg (Steve Jobs, Trumbo), plus a remastered soundtrack of some of Davis’ most memorable music. The film is expected out in theaters this April 1st. Check out the new trailer here on MADE.

A new comedy from Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Bandits) is opening in theaters this week. Titled Rock the Kabash, the film stars comedy veteran Bill Murray (Ghostbusters, Lost in Translation) as a music-industry manager who discovers the voice of a young talent while on tour in Afghanistan and accompanies her to Kabul to participate in Afghan Star, a popular talent-reality show in the Middle East. Screenwriter Mitch Glazer (Scrooged, The Recruit) is behind the script, which features Leem Lubany (Omar, From A to B), Zooey Deschanel (Elf, Yes Man), Bruce Willis (Die Hard, Pulp Fiction), Kate Hudson (Almost Famous, The Skeleton Key), and Danny McBride (Pineapple Express, This Is The End). This will be Levinson’s first directorial release since 2014’s The Humbling with Al Pacino (The Godfather, Scarface). The trailer is available here on MADE. Enjoy!

A new drama from director Ken Kwapis (Malcolm in the Middle, The Office) titled A Walk in the Woods is now playing on big screens across the country. Screenwriters Bill Holderman (Lions for Lambs, The Conspirator) and Rick Kerb (who is actually Little Miss Sunshine writer Michael Arndt) adapted the film from author Bill Bryson‘s book about his returning to the United States after living abroad in England for nearly two decades and the “walk in the woods” trek across the American Appalachia he undertook with his oldest friend. Starring as Bryson in the lead role is Oscar-winner Robert Redford (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men), with fellow Oscar-winner Emma Thompson (Love Actually, Men in Black 3) and Oscar-nominee Nick Nolte (Affliction, Warrior) appearing in the supporting cast. Oscar-winner Mary Steenburgen (Elf, Step Brothers) and Nick Offerman (Parks & Recreation, 21 Jump Street) can also be seen in the film. The trailer is available here on MADE. Enjoy the weekend!

Writer/director Don Cheadle playing trumpet as iconic musician Miles Davis.

We’ve been waiting for some time on more news of Don Cheadle‘s upcoming directorial debut Miles Ahead. The last news we had heard was that Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Crash) was still seeking financial support for the film, and from what we now know, I guess he got what he was looking for. The film is currently in the post-production stages and official news now reports that Miles Ahead will be the closing film for this year’s New York Film Festival, which will be celebrating it’s 53rd Anniversary this year. Obviously legendary musician Miles Davis, whose career gained much of its momentum in New York City, is the focus of the film, and Cheadle, who co-wrote the screenplay, will be starring in the lead role opposite Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere, Addicted) and Ewan McGregor (Big Fish, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith). The New York Film Festival takes place between September 25th and October 17th this year. A full list of films will be forthcoming soon, but Back to the Future and Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk will be the festival opener on September 25th, so if you happen to be in the big apple this fall, consider stopping by and seeing one of the films that are playing. Enjoy!

Like Interstellar, we’ve been following the upcoming Civil Rights drama Selma for some time now, and this week we’ll finally see it open in theaters. Starring David Oyelowo (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Interstellar) as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the film comes from producer Oprah Winfrey and director Ava DuVernay (Middle of Nowhere, Scandal) about King’s epic march between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama at the height of the Civil Rights movement in 1965. Making up the supporting cast are actors Cuba Gooding Jr. (Pearl Harbor, American Gangster), Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), Carmen Ejogo (Away We Go, The Purge: Anarchy), Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now, Bobby), and Tom Wilkinson (The Patriot, Rush Hour) as President Lyndon B. Johnson. While the film chronicles the events of the march historically, writer Paul Webb also delves into the character of King as a person, showing him not only as the leader of a powerful movement but also as a man with his own trials and tribulations. Selma has already been nominated for four Golden Globes, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (David Oyelowo) and also Best Original Song for Common and John Legend‘s Glory (Common will also be seen in the movie!). You can see the trailer above, then definitely add this to your Must-See list. Also opening this week is Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice and Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen‘s Taken 3, so you have plenty of options for this weekend…choose wisely!